Heritage Türkiye

In this episode of Heritage Türkiye, we speak with Dr Batuhan Özdemir, the 2025–26 BIAA–Bilkent Postdoctoral Fellow, about his research on the history of collecting and the politics of cultural heritage in the Ottoman Mediterranean. Focusing on Lycian material culture and Charles Fellows's collection at the British Museum, he explores how objects were framed within 19th-century imperial discourse.
We discuss his shift from field archaeology to archival research, the distinctive character of Lycia, and what material culture can reveal beyond written sources. The conversation also touches on power, mobility, and asymmetry in the circulation of heritage, as well as current debates on decolonisation. Finally, Batuhan reflects on his postdoctoral project and his experience at the BIAA.

In this first episode of a new Heritage Türkiye three-part miniseries, part of the Ottoman Mobilities and Interactions Project—a British Academy–funded initiative bringing together the network of British International Research Institutes—we speak with Dr Selim Sırrı Kuru.
Dr Kuru, who also serves on the Advisory Board of the Ottoman Mobilities and Interactions project, is Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington.
Dr Kuru's research focuses on Ottoman and Anatolian Turkish literature from the Early Modern Period, in particular the formulation of gender and sexuality and exchange between Persian and Ottoman cultural contexts. In this conversation, he reflects on how the idea of mobility reshapes our understanding of Ottoman literary culture, not only through the movement of people, but through the circulation of languages, manuscripts, poetic forms and ideas.
From the emergence of Western Anatolian Turkish as a written language to the travels of manuscripts and poetic traditions across Arabic, Persian and Turkish worlds, the episode reveals the Ottoman literary sphere as a richly interconnected and mobile cultural landscape.

In this episode of Heritage Türkiye, we speak with Professor Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London, a leading ethnomusicologist of Turkish and West Asian music and a council member of the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). Beginning with the story of his appearance on Turkish television playing bağlama as a PhD student, the conversation reflects on his wide-ranging and influential scholarship, including the "arabesk debate", the development of musical genres in the region, the politics of popular culture and the towering figure of Zeki Müren. He also reflects on the changes and continuities he has observed since first working in Türkiye in 1981, making a compelling case for the importance of studying music and cultural production to better understand the region. The episode concludes with his ERC/UKRI-funded project, Beyond 1932, which explores the sonic legacies of the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music, attended by a delegation from Türkiye.

In this episode of the Heritage Türkiye Podcast, archaeologist and architectural historian Dr. Stuart Blaylock reflects on more than forty years of work in Türkiye. From his early excavations at Tille Höyük to later rescue projects at Gre Amer, Dr. Blaylock discusses what rescue archaeology reveals about the Iron Age in northern Mesopotamia, the challenges of excavating sites threatened by dam construction, and what happens to both landscapes and communities when heritage is submerged. The conversation also explores archival memory, displacement, and Dr. Blaylock's long-standing relationship with the British Institute at Ankara, offering a reflective look at archaeology, loss, and continuity.

In this episode of Heritage Türkiye, we speak with Dr. Gül Pulhan, an archaeologist and heritage professional whose work spans salvage excavations, museum practice, and cultural heritage protection in Türkiye and beyond. From salvage excavations at Gre Amer, Batman during the Ilısu Dam campaigns to directing the SARAT (Safeguarding Archaeological Assets of Turkey, 2017–2020) project at the British Institute at Ankara, Dr. Pulhan reflects on the challenges of managing archaeological heritage in times of rapid change. Drawing on long-term experience across academia, museums, and civil society, the conversation explores education, policy, and practice, and asks what responsible heritage protection looks like today — and what lessons SARAT leaves for the future for institutions, professionals, and communities alike.